Six Insurance Policies to Protect Your Engineering Business
by Abdul Aziz Mondal Insurance Published on: 26 March 2021 Last Updated on: 03 July 2021
Engineers and engineering businesses are responsible for conceptualizing, planning, and building important structures that dot urban and rural landscapes. The special nature of engineering jobs requires engineers to choose wisely when they’re thinking about insurance policies.
The right combination of standard insurance policies alongside policies designed for the engineering industry can help you protect your business at all times.
Here are the top six business insurance policies to consider for engineering businesses:
1. Business Owners’ Policy-
Also known as BOP, a Business Owners’ Policy encompasses three crucial business insurance policies that can help you protect your business. The policies typically included are:
General Liability Policy:
This covers your engineering business from workplace accidents that lead to bodily injury, as well as property damage. During certain circumstances, your engineering business can also be covered against slander and libel.
Commercial Property Insurance:
Irrespective of whether you’re renting the property you run your engineering business from, or you own it, ensuring it is always a good idea. That way, any physical damage to your property is covered.
Commercial Property Insurance also protects your equipment, tools, and even your inventory.
Business Income Insurance:
It’s near impossible to predict if your business will face any disruptions. These disruptions can come from fire or water damage, natural disasters, and more.
A Business Income Insurance helps you recover profits lost due to covered business disruptions that prevented you from opening your business. Covered property damage can also be claimed under Business Income Insurance.
2. Professional Indemnity Insurance:
Another name for Professional Indemnity Insurance is Errors and Omissions Insurance. This is especially necessary for engineers and engineering businesses.
Since the nature of the profession is highly dependent on the advice and specialized information provided by engineers, any mistakes can be costly for clients.
A Professional Indemnity Insurance protects you and your engineering business should the client suffer financial damages after following the advice provided by you or your employees.
3. Accounts Receivable Coverage:
In the engineering industry, projects can last for months. Some even take years before they are completed. This means that for a significant duration until the work is completed, a large portion of your assets exists in the form of receivables.
To ensure that you recover all the money owed to you from clients, you need to maintain extensive records of the receivables.
If the records are lost or damaged beyond recovery, then you can have a hard time getting the money you are owed. This is where Accounts Receivable Insurance can help you. This insurance policy will cover the cost needed to replace your lost records.
You’ll also be helped in recovering the money you are owed by clients.
4. Erection and Engineering All Risk:
EAR insurance or Erection and Engineering All Risk insurance is an insurance policy designed specifically for engineers and engineering businesses.
Often, engineers are hired to install or assemble machinery or equipment for clients. They are required to test the equipment as well.
Should there be any damage to the machinery or equipment during the delivery or assembly process, the client can file claims against you.
An EAR insurance policy covers you in this situation. It doesn’t apply only to single machinery and pieces of equipment, but also to assemble equipment.
5. Computers and Media Insurance Coverage:
Engineers need to work with software, communication tools, and computers. A lot of the software used by engineers are specialized and store valuable information on projects.
Engineers use software to create plans, share their information with clients and collaborators, store quality control documents, etc.
Should a computer be affected by malware it a virus, then this valuable data can become corrupted. A Computers and Media Insurance policy can cover you against such damages and help you recover lost or corrupted data as well.
6. Workers Compensation Insurance Policy:
Workers Compensation Insurance policy protects your employees should they be injured during duty. It doesn’t apply to employees who get injured outside of work, such as during a vacation. Workers Comp is legally required by various states in the US.
Workers Cover includes medical expenses for injuries and accidents, partial recovery of wages from lost work hours, death and disability benefits, and more.
Having a Workers Compensation Insurance policy is a great idea for engineers and engineering businesses, especially owing to the risks involved with the profession.
Conclusion:
Engineers and engineering businesses face various risky scenarios during work. Having insurance policies in place can help you protect your business and your employees in the event of an accident, data corruption, etc.
By choosing a combination of business insurance policies and specialized engineering insurance policies, you can financially protect your engineering business at all times.
If you want to learn more about business insurance for engineers, you can click here.
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